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FCS leave the poor kid alone Wasn't his fault BP put the no.12 noose around his neck He must be devastated, i feel sorry for him Haven't we got better things to discuss than kicking around this kid's carcass?

scarlette johannsen (spelling?)

I know, I know, it is all well and good to quote an unnamed source, but I have been told with some authority, that the word is the MFC will be told it has no case to answer. The reason it is taking so long is in the hope that the dust settles enough for the AFL to be comfortable to make an official announcement at a time of its own choosing.

Supposing we do see improvement overall, I want to see Watts emerge as a gamebreaker. More than anyone else, he's been the target of the sneerers; and so, for us to begin to really command respect, I think that Watts' performances just about have to demand respect first. Unfair, but he's been front and centre since we drafted him. I suspect he'll either be at the centre of our rise or he'll just drift out the side; but if he takes off, we shake off all the crap we've taken in the past so-many years... Against GWS at the MCG, Watts fending off to gather on the wing and taking a couple of bounces before the perfect cross to Trengove at centre-half-forward, who marked over Scully before goaling - that was a pointed statement about being number one draft pick if ever I saw one, and it got me very excited. I think he's ready for a break-out, and goodness knows he's got the skills if he can impose himself on the game week after week. I want more of this - rub all their faces in it, Jack! It would silence the critics and vindicate the club better than just about anything - providing of course that we are seen to have begun our push up the ladder.

I just got back from ordering a pizza and saw a 2010 CFC magazine with a 3 page article on Mark Neeld. It was an interesting read that went through his playing career and coaching career (to that point) The main point that I picked up from this article was Mark talking about wanting to coach the hardest team to play against when coaching Ocean Grove. I must admit when I heard this when Neeld was appointed last year, I thought him to be making a stupid statement that seemed a little egotistical. It seems that this is a mantra to his coaching philosophy. He also spoke about working with the locals at Ocean Grove and that to implement his 'hardest to play against' mantra, he knew he had to build strong relationships with his players, who were mostly tradies. He went on to say they had a very good work ethic that he tapped into. Other points of this article were, He saw himself as wanting to coach at the begining of his career. Malcolm Blight gave out notes and information sheets to all his players at Geelong and told his players if they ever wanted to coach, to keep these sheets as a resource. Mark kept them all and was using them as a tool when coaching at all levels. He talks about coaching a defensive game plan when at the Jets, school coaching and Ocean Grove. He had the opportunity to go to the Western Bulldogs or Collingwood, but when he was interviewed by Malthouse. He stated they had very similar ideas and ended up coaching at the Pies. It was a very good read and this article has given me more faith in the direction Neeld is taking the club. It seems that his philospohy has not changed throughout his career. He is a successful coach at other levels and as an Assistant Coach. I believe a little more since reading the mag. On the way home my hands felt dirty from reading the Magpie mag, so i thoroughly washed them when i got home. If your asking why read the mag? It was a choice between Womens Day. A no brainer and as I said the article was very good

Prendergast was an unmitigated disaster. You could get two picks right in 4 drafts.

And people try to tell me that eloquence is a thing of the past.

Merry Xmas everyone

Call me strange but the coaching panel get me excited. Watching the training clips, drills are timed to the minute. Misson has brought expectations of AFL-plus levels of fitness. Neeld has a game plan. And I think Craig & Neeld are instilling a culture not seen since the Northey days. Look at the comradery. And we're accumulating the necessary "cattle". We'll surprise a few pundits in 2013.

General Neeld's war on mediocrity

I really keen to see what Dawes can do and I'm hoping that this year will be a huge one for Jack Watts. However, my big hope and maybe a surprise for some, is Jake Spencer. Has improved out of site and is very determined.

A full season from the new twin towers up forward in Clark and Dawes.

Beeing based in WA i never really saw the point of them, but I flew over to watch the Dee's / Hawks game last year and sitting in the olympic stand with the wind howling and a massive chill factor i found a new respect for the humble scarf.

Cravat??

Played a few games as an U18 youngster in the seniors under Neeld in Ocean Grove. Commands respect but does not demand it, earns it from the players through the building of relationships and work ethics. He is/will do great things with our beloved Dee's. Mark my words. (no pun intended.)

This is a superb moment capturing the emotion as Hannath is told he'll be playing AFL next year, but not with the Dees: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/tabid/8667/contentid/509476/default.aspx Well done to the whole content and digital team, including all the happy snaps from Matt Burgan, the coverage of this camp has been first class.

I think Howe could get a guernsey. He appears to be a standout in the training reports.. Frawley is a cert and Neeld loves Garland so my guess is they stay. Jones is a lock in as are Grims and Trenners. Clarke and Dawes might be the next ones..

Incase you were wondering Woman's Day ran a full length article that Kate is having twins... unfortunately I wasn't so lucky at my dentist

I'm looking forward to seeing a true team effort, all the players doing the Neeld tough football thing, backing each other up and supporting each other.

Wonderfully evocative metaphor. Keep shovng them in there .

"Sleazy Sam Blease". Has the pace and the will to take 'em on. Has kicked too many "arsey" goals for it to be an accident. One of many to be excited about .

As long as you measure that proportionately against what he drafted in then I would consider it valid.Too much concern about what we've lost as opposed to what we've gained.

So now that we have completely buried the kid let's try for some objectivity. He won AA honours in the under 18's - arguably that puts him in the top 24 junior footballers in the land ( I say arguably as footballers miss the championships because of injury and certain top ten picks have a few off games in the championships and dont make AA). By my reckoning that makes him at least a top 30 pick. Yes, it was over ambitious with pick 12 but based on the evidence at the time he was a highly touted draft pick. What does that tell us? Not that we picked up a footballer with pick 12 who should not have even been drafted by anyone ( to claim that again is retrospectivity of the highest order) - we picked up a footballer maybe 10 rungs too early in the draft who just didnt make it - we paid first round for probably a second round draft pick. Some make it - some don't - them's the breaks. Whether Cook will make it is a moot point - some footballers just take longer to mature and are showing little at Cooks age - what I think is very apparent is that Neeld has little interest in project players - his picks are going to show their hands pretty early or out they go.

I am a 52yo MFC supporter. Robbie Flower is the greatest footballer that I've had the pleasure to watch. And my God, it was a pleasure! His agility, exquisite skills & awareness were unsurpassed. The attached video, while bringing memories flooding back of Robbie's left-handed bounces, do little justice to his ability. The snippet of him baulking two opposition players on the boundary line gives younger MFC supporters just a glimpse of what Robbie would do regularly 10-15 times per game. The Members would rise expectantly if he was within 20m of the ball. Then he'd do something unbelieveable. And the cheer would go up, "Robbieee!!!" He's the single reason that any of my generation became or remained MFC supporters. The Club & the supporters who "survived" the 70-80s are eternally indebted to Robbie for his skill & his loyalty. PS. I have mentioned on another thread that I have just seen someone vaguely reminiscent of Robbie. Jesse Aish (Michael Aish's nephew) at Norwood going in next year's draft. Similar skills & awareness, same left-hand bounce, same evasive skills while teasing the opposition holding the ball cocked in his left wrist with a straight left arm ready to send a handpass. It has only taken 25 years for even a shadow of Robbie to re-appear on the AFL stage. That is how good R Flower was!

Just quietly I am very happy hearing that..

Is this the training or the scarf thread?

Tom McDonald - AA. And watching Jimmy Toumpas start his career with a BANG.

If you have a lot of scarves you can sew them together and make a rug. Looks great. Get you wife onto it.

The new season, the start of a new era, going to games full of confidence, singing the song until I'm hoarse. I could go on, but I'm sure you get my drift.

I like the scarf. It lets everyone know who is a member and who is not and I find that guilt works to get new members (especially in the MCC).

We only have Jon Ralph's assumption that the investigation is continuing. Since AD came back from his holidays, the AFL and the MFC have been very tight with information. Jon Ralph wouldn't have a clue whether it's continuing or not if you ask me, all he knows is that nothing was to be bought up at the last meeting of the AFL Commission for the year. He then makes the assumption it will come up at the next one in February (at the earliest) it's pretty impressive deduction skills for a muppet to work such things out I know, but there you have it.... I'd be amazed if they are still going through stuff, I suspect the only work that these AFL investigators are probably doing at the moment is tying things up and writing up a report/recommendation stating that there is no case to answer for the MFC, and/or recommendations to the AFL on how to have a tighter policy to prevent such things occurring in the future.

I have no doubt that people wear them when they first get them (if they purchase their membership before a game), but I'd be interested to know how many people ever wear the scarf more than that first time. It's easier to wear it than to carry it around with you. My bet is that the majority of membership scarves end up in the back of wardrobes. The MFC should create an initiative to recycle old scarves and give them to new immigrants and young people. This would prevent the scarves from wasting away, and would help (hopefully) to grow the supporter base.

yeah yeah get all those out of the way first i suppose...

MFC retro headband modelled by Jack V I reckon.

Could have been worse. I just found out from a magazine at my dentist that when it's released the Leyland P76 will be the best car the world's ever seen.

Welcome to the club Iron Man

Hahaha! You are like Blackboard on the old Mr Squiggle show......

The Neeld revolution is beginning to take shape, no more softies, no more players ruling the roost, no more games to players that don't deserve them, hard, tough, contested football, with players that want to play for the MFC. I really believe he is restoring the respect and pride this club used to have.

Just this as a point of view. I dont think the Club as such would ever blame us ( supporters) as it will be well aware of its situation. I do however like the analogy in a fashion. A context it summons is that of performance. Like it or not for most of us in life there ARE choices. Ive often thought that there may well be far more potential members out there than is often suggested as a supporter base. The issue however is many have become disenfranchised over time , even to the point of it becoming a little institutionalised. Not all supporters are, nor will they ever be, nor should they have to be , Die-hards. Surely there is more than enough room to accommodate those that would dearly love to enjoy supporting a team they all but secretly, and sometimes begrudgingly support. I dont know too many that enjoy visits to the Dentist or mechanics or the doctor etc for they all entail a time endured when something is invariably wrong. There are many who would view going to a Melbourne game ( let alone buying a membership )as akin to this form of torture. But they have a choice and its measured by a popular yardstick; bums on seats. I will confess i dont go to every game. Over the last ten years i think Ive only averaged half a dozen games per season. remarrying and having a growing business have affected this but in all honesty if we were travelling really well I might just be encouraged to reschedule a few things or push the love of my wife a bit and attend a few more. But i dont like going to the dentist and the mechanic is never cheap. Watching Melbourne over the past decade is like watching an amateur theatre group doing groundhog day. Its often not pretty. My days on this mortal coil are numbered. Theres more pleasurable things in life than masochism. Now I like to think of myself as a pretty full on Demon tragic and yet I make decisions about attending. Now if i can then surely the extrapolation is to those that arent even over the line but umming and ahhing. They too will have more pleasurable options in life. So whilst I applaud and agree to the notion that winning is the reward for supporting , as a fan, a supporter then I would suggest that supporters and attendance is the reward to the club for winning. Becomes a bit chicken and egg really. I cant affect how the team performs , I can only pay and attend. The Club however can affect how the team performs and by consequence how it is supported . The MFC in order to grow its membership needs to re-engage a fractionalised supporter base. At the same time it needs to grow potential support or as some would have it growing the brand. Its human nature to want to emulate a positive outcome. We might sympathise with the underdog and applaud a valiant loser but very few actually want to be them. The cost of basic membership is less than a capuchino a week, not much really. Im sure there are thousands of people who have a soft spot for the ol' Dees that drink coffee and wouldnt blink about 2-3 coffees a day but baulk at signing on. So why. I dont think its money . So it must be what you get for it.Strangely its not really about winning as that simply wont occur all the time ( rarely ) its about being associated with a group thats fair dinkum, that shares similar values and aspirations as yourself. I , in my work , and other pursuits , give it a fair go. I try. I put in what I have and sometimes go overtime and over board to try to get the result I aim for. Sometimes this is achieved, other times I dont. It must be my crab like nature but I simply dont understand the idea of giving in. This is what I want from my club. To see a team try and not give in. In the 48 years of my support its a pretty empty bucket. I choose membership but cant begrudge anyone for not doing likewise as there are simply other choices in life. Some call them fair weather suporters, some call them fickle. I just call them decision makers. I simply refuse to believe its impossible to have a membership of 50 or even 60000. But until the MFC represents what many people would choose to associate with it wont happen. Like it or not winning is the materialisation of many of the values that people hold dear, especially in sport.

What the film footage (as wonderful as it is) cannot convey is the whole-ground impact he had. When he got the ball, or was moving to where he would get it, even as the roar went up your eyes would leap 80 metres down the ground. You didn't want to miss a thing he did, but no way would you get any sense of it if you just watched him. Forwards (Biffin especially) would take off, defenders must've felt panic, everyone changed gear in the instant and the whole game would split open. To see this stuff is what TV cannot give you, and it is the best. Cameras follow the player with the ball, but the really great players instantly impact half the ground when they take possession - and while everything suddenly moves faster, at the same time they seem to have all the time in the world. Diesel Williams was slow and rooted to the spot in the centre, but he opened the game dramatically with his lightning-fast and creative handballing. The original "distributor" of the ball (as far as I ever saw) was Polly Farmer - he fired the ball out by hand to runners 15 metres away and cut the game open every time. But Robbie was without question the most spectacular I ever saw in his capacity to regularly make 80 metre moves - and he did it with such lightness and pace. As extraordinary as anything about him was the degree of improbability of him as a footballer. To look at him or listen to him speak, he was so mild and inoffensive and slight, you just could not imagine him out there with the tough guys. He was the ultimate proof that our game is more than just numbers - it has at its very pinnacle players who defy all the rules and use imagination, vision, desire and almost certainly a sixth sense to transcend the great struggle. It is its ability to showcase such rare, almost mystical capability that for me makes football the greatest sport I know. Beyond the slog and the drills and the set-plays, the gym work and the game-plans and all that stuff lies a zone that is pure art - it is both poetic in its slowing/intensifying of time, and breathtaking - the world of Daicos and Ablett Snr and unlikeliest-looking of the lot, Robbie Flower. Jack Dyer once commented that Robbie Flower knew by instinct exactly where everything around him was, even what was behind him; he said this capacity had been identified in gridiron players, where it was reckoned there might be half a dozen players at the most who has any sense of it - and watching Robbie Flower, Jack Dyer realised what it was the Americans had been telling him. Tiger Crosswell once said that if you ever beat Robbie Flower you might as well hang up your boots - there would be nothing left to achieve in football. To watch him play - nothing has ever compared. Now and then you see something that reminds you a little of it...

The AFL won't get anywhere but there is no conclusive evidence, its all heresay and bitter ex-players. lf we do get charged it will be taken to court and they will throw it out, we are going to deny it. There might be a bit of truth but the AFL forced everybody's hand. There is at least 6 other teams in the same boat.

I have an android. Looks exactly the same as the photos above. Works a dream.

The club can't do anything right...

Can't wait for Denham to slag off at us for losing Jack and predicting that he will the best ruckman the game has ever seen.

Tony Stark of Stark industries - Iron Man

I reckon Dawes is a lock. He has leadership aspirations and I expect, qualities which Neeldy demands.

Either Jesse hogan was doing star jumps or scully dropped his wallet.

Viney went out for a midnight swim?

Whenever i read the term shock jock i usually just translate it with d-head....

Trengove's second year had him well placed to take the same steps that the others have, but I'm not sure what went wrong, other than the usual theories. But yes, for every Judd, Buckley, Shuey, Rockliff, Fyfe there are a Hayes, Simpson, Boyd, Bartel, Voss, and Swan who take longer. Michael Voss had a really disappointing third year where he averaged 14 disposals from 12 games. In his 4th year he was a star (averaged 23 disposals and kicked 30 goals) and in his 5th he won the Brownlow. Not withstanding his excellent year, Jones needs to get more consistent, Trengove needs to take the step he can, Sylvia needs to finally have the year he's capable of, and Viney and Toumpas have already experienced playing against men. And I think Kent will surprise. He's hard at it with pace and a great kick. I had a PM with a West Coast supporter who's played against him (on him) and he reckons he's a steal for the Dees. He rates him very highly. If you look at some West Coast threads from back in July he's talked up as a likely draft choice and many couldn't believe he wasn't playing for WA. 2013 should be a good platform to see where the improvement is going to come from. One last comment - the thing with Viney and Toumpas is that unlike Watts, Andrew Walker, Dan Hannebery, or Callan Ward, who all made their debuts while still at school, they'll be playing 2013 as 19 year olds, having already had experience against men. Nathan Buckley started at 20 and was runner-up in Brisbane's B&F. Leigh Matthews won a B&F as a 19 year old in a premiership side. And yes, it was his third year in the VFL and I'm not suggesting they'll be the equivalent of the best player to ever play the game, or even in Buckley's league, I'm just making the point that as 19 year olds I think you'll find they influence games far more than the usual debutantes. If I'm wrong I'm wrong. They make take longer to find their feet than I expect. And that's fine, as I'm sure in time they'll be excellent players.